Over the last 3-5 years I slowly disengaged with my athletic identity. It was a busy time of my life—master’s degree, youth ministry,& moving, marriage. Although I have noticed a huge amount of passion and competition within me that is wanting to get out. I have tried a numerous of remedies, namely: blogged more, read a lot, watched a lot of hyper-masculine movies, watched a lot of UFC, worked longer hours, & lifted weights. Some of these remedies were better than others but I still wasn’t fully unleashing my competitive edge.
I step back and reflected about why I have this huge passion and competitive edge inside me. Then…. it hit me… for 10 years of my life all I did was play and train for sports. I developed athletic habits that are still deeply ingrained in me. I was a three sport athlete in high school. It seemed like right when I really committed my soul to the church I stop competing. My revelation of wanting to healthy compete in something was a huge realization for me.
So I asked myself what can I compete in?
The top two things were either: Mix Martial Arts or Running
Mix Martial Arts is way to expensive. It runs around $130 to join a gym that is 35 minutes from where I live. I don’t have the time and the money to make that happen, which is what led me to running.
I feel fairly comfortable running because I ran track in high school. I actually love running. So I found a 5K to compete in this May. On May 2nd, I will be running in the Orange County 5K. I am super stoked!!!
The training has begun and I feel alive and ready to rock it.
© 2010, Jeremy Zach. All rights reserved.
Dude.
I could have written this post and it would have been totally accurate for my life.
DANG IT!
In high school: football, basketball, track. I played football in college. Also did tons of intramurals and played pick-up bball a TON.
Now I serve at a church where the only sport people seem to engage in is golf. Hardly what i’ve trained my body to do. Also, my youth group is made up mainly of marching band members. I love em, but gathering together for coffee is much more likely than gathering together to play ultimate frisbee or hoops.
It’s crazy.
Let’s start a NYBL (National Youth Pastor’s Basketball League) just to give us something to train and compete in.
Press on brother….
Great post. I think that we sometimes disengage spirit from body in a false dichotomy. The reality is that when I’m physically active, my spirit also feels more alive. 5Ks are great. Ran one not too long ago. Easy to get into shape for (doesn’t require a ton of time), and often pretty fun.
I’m thinking about running a half marathon this year.